Noodlebowl

I Lost My Poor Meatball

Meatballs are close to my stomach. Whenever my parents went away, my mum would stock the freezer with curries, bolognaise sauce and little plastic bags of meatballs. We would chuck them in maggi mee noodle soups, stir fry them with tomatoes and a tin of pineapples or just eat them. An aunt in Malaysia always used to make these amazing giant meatballs for festive occasions, as a kid I could never get enough of these dipped in sweet tomato sauce. I defy anyone to stand in a kitchen with someone making meatballs and not have a taste test or two.

I made a batch of pork, chilli and fennel meatballs on the weekend. Rainy cold days are conducive to cooking and also eating. Fennel season has arrived and I am trying hard to include them in our meals. Anyone have any good fennel recipes?

Spaghetti and Meatballs

500g pork mince
3 garlic cloves and 1/2 bulb fennel minced
1 tbsp fennel seeds or ground fennel
1 tbsp of dried chilli flakes
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tbsps parmesan cheese
1 egg
Salt and Pepper

Mix everything up together well with clean hands. Form into balls. Saute some chopped
garlic, add 1 bottle sugo pomodoro and a glass of water(wne would work well too) Simmer gently and add torn basil leaves. Gently drop balls into sauce and cook for about 15/20 minutes. I like to add al dente spaghetti to the sauce so it all mixes together but you can serve it atop of old smokey if you like.

Mighty delicious it was too. Lucky seeing as the ingredients above yielded us 4 serves of lunch, 1 serve of dinner and a few meatball taste tests.

(Note that my recipes should only be used as guidelines. I’m not so good with exact measurements hency why I rarely bake)